Memorial Day Weekend included the usual festivities and good numbers of tourists flocking to the coast, despite mild rains on Monday for most of the day. The ocean was calm and offered the lowest of low tides this year, with a -1.9 on Sunday at about 6:30 in the morning. The exceptionally low tides began on Friday, May 24 and continued for nearly a week.

As Mendocino Abalone Watch volunteers well know, these spring tides one more will occur in late June draw divers from everywhere to hunt for abalone. Similar tides last month brought hundreds of divers to the Mendocino Coast and this past weekend's crowd was no different.

MAW volunteers reported hundreds of divers throughout the long weekend at popular spots like Glass Beach, Todd Point, Jug Handle State Reserve and Van Damme State Beach. Also busy this weekend were two staff members from the state Department of Parks and Recreation, who were engaged in "creel surveys" for the biology staff, busy precisely recording abalone sizes and "take" locations at Van Damme.

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